Sunday, December 02, 2018

Vice Adm. Scott Stearney, who oversaw U.S. naval forces in the Middle East, was found dead Saturday in his residence in Bahrain, officials said. Defense officials told CBS News they are calling it an "apparent suicide."

Stearney was the commander of the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. Rear Adm. Paul Schlise, the deputy commander of the 5th Fleet, has assumed command, the Navy said in a statement.

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Planes falling out of the sky more than usual, after a device has been found to be installed in the engines to 'prevent stalling' that also prevents pilots from pulling out of nosedives. High level officers keeling over, politicians suddenly dropping out of decades long held offices.

Nothing to see here folks. No secret war happening under the cover of night, no cloak and dagger skulduggery going on here, go back to sleep.

This is something that happens in the military, and it is far more common than the general public is aware of. It's such a problem, in fact, that there were times we were given specific "suicide awareness and prevention training". Didn't matter what your rank was, either.

The particular example brought up in my training was a man who was the first to person to complete the STA-21 program (Seaman to Admiral in 21 years). This guy clawed his way up the ranks from a lowly E1 all the way to O7 and still ended up killing himself.

I also personally witnessed someone commit suicide with a pistol, and cleaned up the aftermath of another, and I was only in for five years.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that people shouldn't start trying to read tea leaves just because the guy was an admiral. Service members, sadly, seem to have a higher suicide rate than the general public.

As someone who as in the Navy, depressed, and damn near blew off my own head, there can be a crushing feeling of moral responsibility for the actions of the Navy as a whole. On the other hand...Clintons.

Churchill said that during wartime, the truth is so precious it must be protected by a bodyguard of lies. Some of the truth may be released fifty years later, which seems to be the magic number. (LBJ promised that the truth about the Kennedy assassination would not be released until fifty years after his own death.) It is only in the past few years that some of the truth about WWII operations have been made public. Shucks, there are aspects about the American Civil War that remain a mystery.

If any of the young guys here want a real mystery, look up James Forrestal. He was the first Secretary of Defense and by any account one of the more capable and competent individuals in 20th century America. He is still well-regarded and respected.

There was a press conference in South Carolina last week about Operation Surprise Party, which caught 15 prison inmates and an unknown number of outside accomplices who pretended to be women on dating sites and got military men to trade nudes, then told them the girl was underage and blackmailed them. There were a surprising number of bigshots in attendance at the presser for what seemed like a basic criminal matter, enough that /pol/ was watching in case it was a Happening. They did say over 400 military personnel at all levels were scammed, and that this was only the first stage of the investigation.

No idea if there's a connection, but that's the first thing that came to mind.

Given the way things are, as stressful as military life is ordinarily, (lets make no bones about it, it can be straining), with the way things are it wouldn't surprise me if servicemen were being artificially demoralised intentionally, especially the higher ups. Could be wrong of course, it'd probably be best to compare modern military suicide rates with those of the past to see if we can find any discrepencies.

"Especially admirals, for some reason, Jeremy Boorda being the most high-profile that I remember."

About a week before, Col (P) (Ret.) David Hackworth had noted in a nationally syndicated column (carried on WND if anyone wants to find it) that Boorda was improperly wearing a V device on one of his ribbons (the V indicates that the recipient demonstrating Valor in the course of whatever act(s) earned him the medal. The medal in question was one of the typical "Commanding officer's package" of medals which every CO who doesn't screw up majorly, qualifies for under the requirements for the awards.

Personally, I think they should abolish the "Commander's pack" and replace them with a single Commanded in Combat Operations Medal, as the automatic award for just doing the assigned duties of the rank rather cheapens such awards as the Bronze Star, which even Senior NCOs typically have to perform some outstanding act of bravery or successfully take charge of a large body of men due to all senior leaders being incapacitated, AND lead the remaining members of that body to do great things until replacement officers and NCOs arrive to refill the holes in the Table of Organization.

Haven't seen any reports of the departed admiral found hanging from a doorknob, usually a method of 'message suicide' sent by cabal as an example for those thinking of talking. There was some lower level official in the Banana bureaucracy connected with healthcare or pharma who recently was suicided by multiple blunt-force trauma to the head (maybe banged his head against the wall one too many times), which is a remarkable example of how brazen the lying has gotten. CIA, et al have endless number of ways to suicide those they need to get rid of. Not sure if this character was a Stepford Admiral of the Imperial Fleet or someone who wasn't so keen on endless wars for the sake of certain 'eternal frenz of Murika' in the region. If the mysterious 'Novichok' surfaces we'll have a good idea who who done it.

If we weren't involved in all these foreign conflicts, I bet we would see less suicides. Maybe nearly none.

Back in the 1980s, we were about as foreign conflict-free as we ever were. We had suicides semi-regularly for things like getting passed over for promotion and getting SERB'd, failing rifle range qualification (tasteless joke was the guy needed an extra bullet), finding out one's wife/girlfriend was getting it on with Jody, etc. Looking at the rates, it was about higher than what it is today.

Military suicides are not notably higher than suicides among men in the general population. What makes them appear higher is that the military is heavily male, and male suicides are vastly higher than female suicides. All the hype on this compares "general population" (male & female) with "military" (lots of male & and a few female) to come up with the large disparity.

DJT wrote:But it takes a lot of conditioning–unhealthy amounts–to risk your life for foreigners in foreign lands that pose no benefit to you at all. Literal brainwashing.

I address the supposed excess of military suicides in my previous post. As the parent and son and friend of many soldiers and sailors, what you need to consider is that men like to fight. There aren't a lot of outlets in society for that sort of thing. My son didn't need to be brainwashed to be a career soldier. It's a very different life than civilian life, and very rewarding in some specific, masculine ways. This may not be apparent to many soldiers who are not, specifically combat arms -- POGs -- but if you're airborne, ranger, special forces, etc., it's a different world and there isn't a lot of opportunity for that kind of life in the civilian world.

To quote from "Pulp Fiction," it's the little differences that make a difference. At least back in the day, USA, USN, USAF and USCG would take your ID card photo right when you hit boot camp. The Suck waited until you were about to graduate. So soldiers, sailors, airmen and coasties looked shit scared in their initial ID card photos. Marines looked like they were ready to eat your heart.

Fat Leonard of the Middle East? The Air Force seems to have glow-in-the-dark spookery baked-in, but the Navy (e.g. Forrestal as JFK confidant; LSD ambush, psychiatric hospitalization, handbook 'auto'-defenestration killing) and Marines may be aligned differently. Long past due for counter wet-workarounds against subversion of the military from 5th columns at the least, tit for tat.

And the Navy's culture exacerbates both the misuse of power by officers over subordinates, and blame-shifting onto subordinates. It's been that way since at least the Civil War, and probably goes all the way back to the Royal Navy.

The "suicide" of Vice Admiral Scott Stearney, 58, head of US Navy Central Command, has given rise to speculation he opposed a Zionist-sponsored false flag designed to provoke US military action against Iran.

It recalls the murder ("suicide") of Admiral Jeremy Bourda in 1996 and trains a spotlight on US military culture.